The effect of age on outcomes of coronary artery bypass surgery compared with balloon angioplasty or bare-metal stent implantation among patients with multivessel coronary disease. A collaborative analysis of individual patient data from 10 randomized trials.

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to assess whether patient age modifies the comparative effectiveness of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). BACKGROUND: Increasingly, CABG and PCI are performed in older patients to treat multivessel disease, but their comparative effectiveness is uncertain. METHODS: Individual data from 7,812 patients randomized in 1 of 10 clinical trials of CABG or PCI were pooled. Age was analyzed as a continuous variable in the primary analysis and was divided into tertiles for descriptive purposes (≤56.2 years, 56.3 to 65.1 years, ≥65.2 years). The outcomes assessed were death, myocardial infarction and repeat revascularization over complete follow-up, and angina at 1 year. RESULTS: Older patients were more likely to have hypertension, diabetes, and 3-vessel disease compared with younger patients (p < 0.001 for trend). Over a median follow-up of 5.9 years, the effect of CABG versus PCI on mortality varied according to age (interaction p < 0.01), with adjusted CABG-to-PCI hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of 1.23 (95% CI: 0.95 to 1.59) in the youngest tertile; 0.89 (95% CI: 0.73 to 1.10) in the middle tertile; and 0.79 (95% CI: 0.67 to 0.94) in the oldest tertile. The CABG-to-PCI hazard ratio of less than 1 for patients 59 years of age and older. A similar interaction of age with treatment was present for the composite outcome of death or myocardial infarction. In contrast, patient age did not alter the comparative effectiveness of CABG and PCI on the outcomes of repeat revascularization or angina. CONCLUSIONS: Patient age modifies the comparative effectiveness of CABG and PCI on hard cardiac events, with CABG favored at older ages and PCI favored at younger ages

Blueberry Advisory Committee Research Report

The 1988 edition of the Blueberry Advisory Committee Research Reports was prepared for the Maine Wild Blueberry Commission and the University of Maine Wild Blueberry Advisory Committee by researchers with the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station and Maine Cooperative Extension Service at the University of Maine, Orono. Projects in this report include: 1. Monitoring methods, economic injury levels, and action thresholds for blueberry spanworm larvae in vegetative year fields. 2. Control of secondary blueberry pests 3. Control of blueberry maggot 4. Effect of pruning practices on blueberry insect abundance 5. Survey of Fungi Contaminating Lowbush Blueberries 6. Nutrition Survey 1988 7. Phosphorus Dose/Response Curve 8. Effect of Several Mulches on Frost Heaving, Soil Moisture, Soil Temperature and Rhizome Development 9. Influence of Mulch Sources on Clonal Spread-SCS Study, Deblois 10. Effect of Surface Mulches on Stabilizing Lowbush Blueberry Soil in Barren Areas 11. Nitrogen-Phosphorus Study 12. Changes in Sugar and Organic Acids of Blueberries During Development, Preprocess Lag Time and Storage 13. Characterization of Pectin in Blueberries 14. Effect of Hexazinone (VELPAR) on Species Distribution in Lowbush Blueberry Fields 15. Evaluation of Setyhoxydim (POAST) for Bunchgrass Control 16. Evaluation and modification of commercial wipers 17. Evaluation of Five Preemergence Herbicides for Control of Oatgrass and Bunchgrass 18. Effect of rate and formulation of hexazinone (VELPAR) on bunchberry 19. Bracken fern control alternatives 20. Hexazinone (VELPAR) and terbacil (SINBAR) combinations for weed control 21. Evaluation of hexazinone (VELPAR) with spot treatments of glyphosate (ROUNDUP) or sethoxydin (POAST) for bunchgrass control 22. Directed sprays of glyphosate (ROUNDUP) for bunchberry control. 23. Evaluation of Postemergence Applications of Chlorimuron for Bunchberry Control 24. Seedling Pruning Study 25. Blueberry Harvester Trials 26. Blueberry Extension Progra

Gender Differences in Russian Colour Naming

In the present study we explored Russian colour naming in a web-based psycholinguistic experiment (http://www.colournaming.com). Colour singletons representing the Munsell Color Solid (N=600 in total) were presented on a computer monitor and named using an unconstrained colour-naming method. Respondents were Russian speakers (N=713). For gender-split equal-size samples (NF=333, NM=333) we estimated and compared (i) location of centroids of 12 Russian basic colour terms (BCTs); (ii) the number of words in colour descriptors; (iii) occurrences of BCTs most frequent non-BCTs. We found a close correspondence between females’ and males’ BCT centroids. Among individual BCTs, the highest inter-gender agreement was for seryj ‘grey’ and goluboj ‘light blue’, while the lowest was for sinij ‘dark blue’ and krasnyj ‘red’. Females revealed a significantly richer repertory of distinct colour descriptors, with great variety of monolexemic non-BCTs and “fancy” colour names; in comparison, males offered relatively more BCTs or their compounds. Along with these measures, we gauged denotata of most frequent CTs, reflected by linguistic segmentation of colour space, by employing a synthetic observer trained by gender-specific responses. This psycholinguistic representation revealed females’ more refined linguistic segmentation, compared to males, with higher linguistic density predominantly along the redgreen axis of colour space

Comparative genomics of Cluster O mycobacteriophages

Mycobacteriophages - viruses of mycobacterial hosts - are genetically diverse but morphologically are all classified in the Caudovirales with double-stranded DNA and tails. We describe here a group of five closely related mycobacteriophages - Corndog, Catdawg, Dylan, Firecracker, and YungJamal - designated as Cluster O with long flexible tails but with unusual prolate capsids. Proteomic analysis of phage Corndog particles, Catdawg particles, and Corndog-infected cells confirms expression of half of the predicted gene products and indicates a non-canonical mechanism for translation of the Corndog tape measure protein. Bioinformatic analysis identifies 8-9 strongly predicted SigA promoters and all five Cluster O genomes contain more than 30 copies of a 17 bp repeat sequence with dyad symmetry located throughout the genomes. Comparison of the Cluster O phages provides insights into phage genome evolution including the processes of gene flux by horizontal genetic exchange

Developing Successful Breeding Programs for New Zealand Aquaculture: A Perspective on Progress and Future Genomic Opportunities

Over the past 40 years New Zealand (NZ) aquaculture has grown into a significant primary industry. Tonnage is small on a global scale, but the industry has built an international reputation for the supply of high quality seafood to many overseas markets. Since the early 1990s the industry has recognized the potential gains from selective breeding and the challenge has been to develop programs that can overcome biological obstacles (such as larval rearing and mortality) and operate cost-effectively on a relatively small scale while still providing significant gains in multiple traits of economic value. This paper provides an overview of the current status, and a perspective on genomic technology implementation, for the family based genetic improvement programs established for the two main species farmed in NZ: Chinook (king) salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and GreenshellTM mussel (Perna canaliculus). These programs have provided significant benefit to the industry in which we are now developing genomic resources based on genotyping-by-sequencing to complement the breeding programs, enable evaluation of the genetic diversity and identify the potential benefits of genomic selection. This represents an opportunity to increase genetic gain and more effectively utilize the potential for within family selection

Reply to: New Meta- and Mega-analyses of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Findings in Schizophrenia: Do They Really Increase Our Knowledge About the Nature of the Disease Process?

This work was supported by National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Grant No. U54EB020403 (to the ENIGMA consortium)

A Novel Bocavirus Associated with Acute Gastroenteritis in Australian Children

Acute gastroenteritis (AGE) is a common illness affecting all age groups worldwide, causing an estimated three million deaths annually. Viruses such as rotavirus, adenovirus, and caliciviruses are a major cause of AGE, but in many patients a causal agent cannot be found despite extensive diagnostic testing. Proposing that novel viruses are the reason for this diagnostic gap, we used molecular screening to investigate a cluster of undiagnosed cases that were part of a larger case control study into the etiology of pediatric AGE. Degenerate oligonucleotide primed (DOP) PCR was used to non-specifically amplify viral DNA from fecal specimens. The amplified DNA was then cloned and sequenced for analysis. A novel virus was detected. Elucidation and analysis of the genome indicates it is a member of the Bocavirus genus of the Parvovirinae, 23% variant at the nucleotide level from its closest formally recognized relative, the Human Bocavirus (HBoV), and similar to the very recently proposed second species of Bocavirus (HBoV2). Fecal samples collected from case control pairs during 2001 for the AGE study were tested with a bocavirus-specific PCR, and HBoV2 (sequence confirmed) was detected in 32 of 186 cases with AGE (prevalence 17.2%) compared with only 15 controls (8.1%). In this same group of children, HBoV2 prevalence was exceeded only by rotavirus (39.2%) and astrovirus (21.5%) and was more prevalent than norovirus genogroup 2 (13.4%) and adenovirus (4.8%). In a univariate analysis of the matched pairs (McNemar's Test), the odds ratio for the association of AGE with HBoV2 infection was 2.6 (95% confidence interval 1.2–5.7); P = 0.007. During the course of this screening, a second novel bocavirus was detected which we have designated HBoV species 3 (HBoV3). The prevalence of HBoV3 was low (2.7%), and it was not associated with AGE. HBoV2 and HBoV3 are newly discovered bocaviruses, of which HBoV2 is the thirdmost-prevalent virus, after rotavirus and astrovirus, associated with pediatric AGE in this study